Ge Lab
Biopharmaceutical Discovery
Lab Members
Xin Ge, Professor of Molecular Medicine, Kay & Ben Fortson Distinguished Chair in Neurodegenerative Disease Research
Xin earned his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Afterward, he obtained his Ph.D. from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada in the laboratory of Dr. Carlos Filipe. He then carried out postdoctoral research at University of Texas at Austin with Dr. George Georgiou. In the Summer of 2011, he joined the faculty of University of California Riverside in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, and in July 2021 he moved his lab to the UT Health Houston.
Faculty Page @ McGovern Medical School ORCID
Faculty Page @ GSBS MDA-UTH LinkedIn
Xin.Ge at uth.tmc.edu
Ki Baek Lee, Postdoc Scholar
Ki Baek earned his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Dongguk University (South Korea), where he studied how to incorporate non-natural amino acids into proteins. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of California Riverside in 2020. He is interested in discovery and engineering of protease inhibitory mAbs for treatments of cancer, neuropathic pain, obesity, etc.
Kibaek.Lee at uth.tmc.edu
Abhijit Sarkar, Research Scientist
Abhijit obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine from University of Calcutta, India. He has rich experience in T cell immunology. Since joins our lab in November 2023, he has been working on chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) development targeting cancer antigens.
Abhijit.Sarkar at uth.tmc.edu
Sushma Krishnan, Research Scientist
Sushma received her Ph.D in Molecular Biology from VIT University, Vellore, India. She did her post-doc and worked as a Research Scientist at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), during which as a EMBO fellow visited Max-Planck Institute in Germany. She joined our lab in June 2024 and works on the development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies targeting proteases.
Sushma.Krishnan at uth.tmc.edu
Xiaozhuo Yu, Postdoc Scholar
Xiaozhuo earned her B.S. in Medicine from Hebei University and her Ph.D. in Immunology from Xi’an Jiaotong University (China), where she studied the role of recombinase-mediated V(D)J recombination in the B cell development and hematologic diseases. Her current research focuses on the directed evolution of recombinases and the development of libraries in T cells.
Xiaozhuo.Yu at uth.tmc.edu
Jia-Shiun (Josh) Leu, Research Scientist
Josh obtained his doctoral degree in Microbiology and Immunology from National Yang-Ming University in Taiwan. He brings extensive expertise in cancer immunology research, with particular emphasis on the tumor microenvironment and the application of immunotherapy. Upon joining our research group, he has been advancing the development of antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) and BBB crossing to address GBM and breast cancer brain metastasis as a therapeutic strategy.
Jia-Shiun.Leu at uth.tmc.edu
Trainee Awards
03/2024, Zening, Affiliated Postdoctoral Fellow, BIG-TCR Training Program in Cancer Research, UTHealth.
07/2023, Ki Baek, Travel award for top postdoctoral poster, Annual IMM Research Retreat, UTHealth.
10/2022, Zening wins 1st prize on poster competition, Therapeutic & Pharmacology (TAP) Program, GSBS.
07/2022, Ki Baek wins Cancer Therapeutics Training Program (CTTP) postdoc followship supported by CPRIT.
12/2021, PhD student Zening Wang wins Poster Award, Antibody Engineering & Therapeutics 2021.
05/2019, Ki Baek wins Dissertation Year Program Fellowship. Congratulations!
10/2018, Ki Baek wins a highly competitive fellowship supported by Mogam Science Scholarship Foundation.
04/2018, Tyler receives Dissertation Year Program Fellowship. Congratulations!
02/2018, Zachary Dunn wins Undergraduate Education Minigrant.
11/2017, Ki Baek and Tyler win Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Research Grant. Congratulations to you both!
08/2017, Tyler wins PepTalk Student Fellowship.
05/2017, Tyler wins Graduate Research Mentorship Fellowship. Congratulations!
06/2016, UG Aaron Ramirez wins Sophomore STEM Success Award. Good job!
04/2016, Carlos wins Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research (two seniors per year)
10/2015, UG Ramon Sanchez wins HSI Undergraduate Research Award.
04/2015, Carlos wins HSI Undergraduate Research Award.
01/2015, Undergraduate Humberto Scott Sanchez wins HSI Undergraduate Research award. Congrats, Scott!
07/2014, PhD student Tyler Lopez wins DoEd Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Fellowship.
04/2014, Peter wins prestigious Dissertation Year Program Fellowship!
02/2014, Peter wins highly competitive Graduate Dean's Dissertation Research Grant. Congratulations!
01/2014, Carlos wins NASA California Space Grant Consortium Fellowship. Congratulations!
11/2013, Peter wins Earl C. Anthony Travel Award.
01/2013, Undergraduate Carlos Rodriguez wins HSI Undergraduate Research award. Congratulations, Carlos!
09/2012, PhD student Peter Nam wins the best presentation award in departmental symposium. Well done, Peter.
Lab Alumni
In chronological order of approximate date joining the lab:
Dong Hyun (Peter) Nam, Graduate Student and Postdoc Scholar
Peter joined the lab in 2011 and received his PhD in 2015. He was a Postdoc Scholar in the Ge Lab from 2015 to 2017 and then joined Xencor as a Scientist specializing in antibody discovery. View Peter’s LinkedIn Profile here.
Gregory Jacobson, Undergraduate Researcher and Graduate Student
Gregory joined the lab in 2011 as an UG and enrolled in the Master program in 2012. He received his MS in 2014, and then joined SCAQMD as an Engineer.
Kuili Fang, Graduate Student
Kuili joined the lab in 2012 and obtained his MS in 2014. After that, he pursued his PhD at Illinois Institute of Technology and then a postdoc at UNC Chapel Hill. View Kuili’s LinkedIn Profile here.
Carlos Rodriguez, Undergraduate Researcher
Carlos joined the lab in 2012 and received his B.S. in 2016. After obtained his MS from University of Michigan in 2018 with Dr. Peter Tessier, he worked at xCella Biosciences as a Research Associate. Now Carlos pursues his PhD at Stanford. View Carlos’ LinkedIn Profile here.
Xin (Cathy) Li, Graduate Student
Cathy joined the lab in 2012 and received her MS in 2013 and PhD in 2017 both in Biochemistry. She then joined the Laboratory of Dr. Manuela Martins-Green at UCR as a Postdoc Scholar. She is now working at Primelink Biotherapeutics. View Cathy’s LinkedIn Profile here.
Evan Kruchowy, Graduate Student
Evan join the lab in 2013 and obtained his MS in 2015. He is a Scientist at Amgen and then at Kite Pharma. View Even’s LinkedIn Profile here.
Yu-Ting Hu, Postdoc Scholar
Yu-Ting was a Postdoc Scholar in the Ge Lab from 10/2013 to 03/2014.
Long Chen, Graduate Student
Long joined the lab in 2013 and obtain his PhD in 2017. He then joined the Laboratory of Dr. Akram Alshawabkeh at Northeastern University as an Associate Research Scientist and now works at STC Biologics Inc.
Tyler Lopez, Graduate Student and Postdoc Scholar
Tyler joined the lab in 2014 and obtained his PhD in 2018. He was a Postdoc Scholar in the Ge Lab from 10/2018 to 02/2019 and then joined Element Bio as a Scientist. View Tyler’s LinkedIn Profile here.
Elmer Wei, Graduate Student
Elmer joined the lab in 2014 and obtained his MS in 2016. He is now a Security Officer at Covenant Aviation.
Scott Sanchez, Undergraduate Researcher
During 2014-2015, Scott was an UG researcher in the Ge Lab. After graduation, he pursued PhD at Montana State University.
Matthew Chow, Graduate Student
Matt joined the lab in 2015 and received his MS in Bioengineering in 2017.
Zahid Mustafa, Undergraduate Researcher
Zahid was an UG researcher in the Ge Lab from 2015 to 2019. He is now the founder of nonprofit WeSuccess.
Evan Kaihara, Undergraduate Researcher
Evan was an UG researcher in the Ge Lab from 2015 to 2016. After graduation, he worked at Amphaster Pharmaceuticals as a Production Process Engineer.
Ramon Sanchez, Undergraduate Researcher
Ramon was an UG researcher in the Ge Lab from 2015 to 2018. After graduation, he worked as a Research Associate at Illumina.
Chuan Chen, Postdoc Scholar
Chuan obtained his PhD from Chinese Academy of Sciences, and from 10/2016 to 10-2019 he was a Postdoc Scholar in the Ge Lab. He then joined the Laboratory of Dr. Dimiter Dimitrov in the Department of Medicine at University of Pittsburg.
Henry Pham, Undergraduate Researcher
Henry was an UG researcher in the Ge Lab from 2016 to 2018. After graduation, he worked as a Research Associate at ZabBio.
Aaron Ramirez, Undergraduate Researcher
Aaron was an UG researcher in the Ge Lab from 2016 to 2018. After graduation, he joined the Laboratory of Dr. Szu-Wen Wang as a PhD student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at University of California Irvine.
Zachary Dunn, Undergraduate Researcher
Zachary was an UG researcher in the Ge Lab from 2016 to 2018. After graduation, he joined the Laboratory of Dr. Pin Wang as a PhD student in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at University of Southern California.
Zening Wang, Graduate Student and Postdoc Scholar
Zening joined our lab at UCR in fall 2018, and defensed her dissertation in 12/2021. She then relocated to Houston and worked with us as a postdoc till 10/2023. She currently holds a research position in Dr. Charles Craik's laboratory at UCSF.
Ngoc Huynh, Graduate Student
Ngoc joined the lab in 2019 and earned her M.S. in Biochemistry in 2021. She then worked at Thermo Fisher Scientific as a Research Assocaite.
Minhyo Kang, Undergraduate Researcher and Graduate Student
Minhyo joined the lab in 2019 and obtained her MS in 2021. She then pursues her Ph.D. in ChE at U. of British Columbia in Canada.
Hyunjun Choe, Postdoc Scholar
Choe received his PhD in Chemistry from University of Florida. From 09/2020 to 08/2022, he was a Postdoc Scholar in the Ge Lab. He then joined Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals at Madison WI as a Scientist. View Choe’s LinkedIn Profile here.
Tara Antee, Undergraduate Researcher
Tara was an UG researcher in the Ge Lab from 2020 to 2021. After graduation, she worked at the Laboratory of Dr. Peter Yingxiao Wang in the Department of Bioengineering at UC San Diego, and then joined the Postbaccalaureate program at Stanford.
Xin Wei, Postdoc Scholar
Graduated from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Xin worked as a postdoc with us from 01/2022 to 11/2022 on developing bi-specific antibodies. She then joined WuXi Biologics at Seattle as a project manager.
Afshin Ebrahimpour, Senior Scientist
Afshin has been working with us between 02/203-09/2025, then he joined Synergy Biosciences in Dallas.